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Fortune 500 company Intercontinental Exchange staying in Jacksonville
Intercontinental Exchange will put headquarters of its mortgage technology division in Jacksonville, retaining 1,500 jobs with plans for adding 500 positions.
Fortune 500 company Intercontinental Exchange picked Jacksonville as the home base for its mortgage technology division after fielding offers from other cities in a battle for the company’s high-paying jobs, the company and city leaders announced Tuesday.
The decision will keep 1,500 employees of Intercontinental Exchange in Jacksonville with plans to increase that by 500 more jobs at an average $100,000 salary over the the next seven years.
“For those of you who do not recognize and understand this — Jacksonville is a tech city,” said Aundra Wallace, president of JAXUSA Partnership, the economic development arm of JAX Chamber. “Say it, we are because that’s why these companies are coming here that are tech-centered.”
The city and the state of Florida combined on a multimillion dollar incentive package that convinced Intercontinental Exchange, whose main headquarters is in Atlanta, to anchor its wholly-owned subsidiary ICE Mortgage Technology in Jacksonville.
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan called it a “very big win for our city” when she joined City Council members, the company and JAX Chamber leaders for the announcement Tuesday in front of the chamber’s building in downtown.
“They were recruited by numerous other cities across the U.S. before choosing Jacksonville as the new home of ICE Mortgage Technology,” Deegan said.
She said it shows the strength of Jacksonville’s financial services sector and the regional employee base for those jobs, the city’s “friendly business climate” and the taxpayer incentives “that will reap dividends for our local economy for many, many years to come.”
International Exchange bought Black Knight in 2023
Intercontinental Exchange, also called ICE, has had a Jacksonville presence since it completed an $11.9 billion purchase of Jacksonville-based Black Knight in September 2023.
Intercontinental Exchange’s acquisition of Black Knight made it the owner of the 601 Riverside Ave. office building where Black Knight had operated its corporate headquarters. The building is next to two other Fortune 500 financial services companies based in Jacksonville: Fidelity National Information Services, or FIS, and Fidelity National Financial.
Intercontinental expects to spend $173 million to $216 million on its office space by the end of December 2029. Intercontinental Exchange has not said whether the Riverside Avenue building will be the long-term home in Jacksonville for its mortgage technology division.
Black Knight had about 2,000 employees in the Jacksonville area when Intercontinental Exchange announced in May 2022 it had struck a deal to purchase Black Knight.
Intercontinental Exchange had 1,500 employees in Jacksonville at the end of November, which is the baseline for counting the addition of 500 new jobs that will qualify the company for job-based incentives.
Jacksonville City Council approved an incentive package on Dec. 10 for the company which was code-named Project Paper Company. Intercontinental Exchange will be able to get up to $5 million from the city’s targeted industry job creation program based on $10,000 for each new job added. The company would have until the end of December 2031 to bring all 500 new jobs for that incentive.
“Being able to keep 1,500 jobs in the city and the additional 500 is huge,” City Council President Randy White said.
Multimillion incentive package locked in decision for Jacksonville
The company also will get rebates on city property taxes it pays based on the increase in property value caused by its investment in building improvements. For the additional city property taxes generated by the company’s investment, Intercontinental would get 90% of those taxes rebates over a 13-year period for a maximum incentive of $16 million.
The state will pay $4 million in grants from its high-impact performance incentive program and give a capital investment tax credit for 100% of the company state’s corporate tax liability.
Joe Nackashi, vice chair of the company’s mortgage technology division, said ICE has started bringing online some of the 500 new jobs.
“We’ve had team members relocated from Chicago, from New York, from Boston and yes from the U.K. in terms of London,” said Nackashi, who previously was CEO of Black Knight.
On a global basis, Intercontinental had 13,222 employees at the end of 2023 in the United States, India, the United Kingdom and Europe. The company had U.S. employees in Florida, New York, Georgia, California, Massachusetts and Illinois.
2024-12-17 19:13:41
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